BSM takes delivery of first ice class feeder vessel

Three other vessels - Barmbek, Reinbek and Flottbek - will join the group by mid-April. The four ice class container feeder vessels were acquired by an investor group represented by the Schulte Group, said a statement from the company.

The Eilbek class feeder vessels are the first ships constructed and adapted for operation in ice class conditions to be managed by BSM Germany, it said.

Jan Warmke, managing director of BSM Germany, said: “Management of these four ships marks another important milestone in BSM’s continuing expansion into more specialist market segments, following entry into service of the highly sophisticated wind energy service operation vessel, Windea La Cour, last June and the recent delivery of her sister vessel, Windea Leibniz.”

The ice class vessels were built in 2004 and 2005 at Meyer-Werft in Papenburg, Germany. Each has a capacity of 1,600 TEU and service speed of up to 20 knots, said a statement.

Following change of ownership, the vessels have been re-flagged from Liberia to Cyprus and will maintain their current time charter employments with Unifeeder, it added.

BSM possesses more than 130 years of experience in the shipping industry. Managing a fleet of 600 vessels, 20,000 employees enable the delivery of safe, reliable and efficient ship management services through a network of 10 ship management, 23 crew service and five wholly-owned maritime training centres across the world.